drafthouse films

A lean story with some unlikely poignancy, with director Daniel Barber squeezing the most suspense out of it possible. There’s not a lot of twists and turns; it’s just one sustained mood of dread and and ending that makes puts the entire thing into a wider, scarier perspective.

Director Tetsuya Nakashima is hellbent to that end in The World of Kanako, his ultra-violent, ultra-stylized 2014 extreme revenge flick. It was released in America last fall by Drafthouse Films and comes to Blu-ray today.

It’s another week at the Scene-Stealers podcast and this week we’re discussing Killing Them Softly, Anna Karenina and Miami Connection – let’s not talk about Jack And Diane. Actually, we will, but it’s a figure of speech. Just listen to it. Subscribe to The Scene-Stealers Podcast on iTunes or our RSS.

Miami Connection is one of those rare films where the positive energy exuded by its oh-so-amateur cast and crew starts to rub off on you, despite the fact that almost all of the basic tenets of motion-picture storytelling are non-existent.

Using specially designed hidden cameras, Brügger films his “secret” meetings with these powerful men — ministers, defense secretaries, bureaucrats, other “diplomats” — who all put on this charade that they are doing things for the welfare of the country.